Japanese manga artist Akira Toriyama dies at 68

By   |  Mar 9, 2024

Japanese manga artist and character designer Akira Toriyama (鳥山明) has died at the age of 68. The cause of his death was an acute subdural hematoma.

Toriyama was born in 1955 in the city of Kiyosu, Aichi prefecture, Japan. He drew pictures from an early age, mostly of animals and vehicles, and said he was blown away after seeing ‘One Hundred and One Dalmatians’ (1961). As he grew older, he developed an interest in manga and cited Osamu Tezuka’s ‘Astro Boy’ as a huge influence during his elementary school days.

After graduating high school, Toriyama began working at an advertising agency in Nagoya designing posters. He quit after three years and decided to enter an amateur contest in Kodansha’s Weekly Shōnen Magazine. Although the timing didn’t line up, his work was spotted by Kazuhiko Torishima who sent Toriyama a telegram encouraging him to keep drawing and sending him manga. This resulted in ‘Wonder Island’, which became Toriyama’s first published work when it was published in Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1978. It finished last in the reader survey but Toriyama’s stubbornness wouldn’t let him quit and he continued to draw failed stories for a year; claiming around 500 pages’ worth. A number of these works were later combined into a book entitled ‘Akira Toriyama’s Manga Theater’ (available from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk).

When Torishima told him to draw a female lead character, Toriyama hesitantly created 1979’s ‘Tomato the Cutesy Gumshoe’, which had some success. Feeling encouraged, he decided to draw another female lead and created ‘Dr. Slump’. Following the adventures of a perverted professor and his small but super-strong robot Arale, the series proved to be a huge success and Toriyama went on to win the Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen or shōjo manga series of the year. An anime adaptation also began airing in 1981.

In 1983, Torishima suggested that, as Toriyama enjoyed kung fu films, he should create a kung fu shōnen manga. This led to the two-part ‘Dragon Boy’ which follows a young boy, adept at martial arts, who escorts a princess on a journey back to her home country. It was well-received and evolved to become the serial ‘Dragon Ball’ in 1984. Serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995, ‘Dragon Ball’ would go on to become one of the best-selling manga series of all time. During that near-11-year period, Toriyama produced 519 chapters that were collected into 42 volumes. The success of the manga also led to five anime adaptations, several animated films, numerous video games, and mega-merchandise.

Following the conclusion of ‘Dragon Ball’, Toriyama continued drawing manga, predominantly one-shots and short pieces, including Cowa! (1997–1998), Kajika (1998), and Sand Land (2000). He also designed an electric car for CQ Motors and created various character designs for video games such as the ‘Dragon Quest’ series, ‘Blue Dragon’, ‘Chrono Trigger’, and some ‘Dragon Ball’ games.

Akira Toriyama was a hugely talented artist who will be sadly missed by millions of fans around the world. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends at this time.

Source: Wikipedia

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